Violet Hill
by AlwaysMakingTrouble
Summary: Death. Sorrow. Fear. And Snow. Sometimes love only goes one way. Songfic :   DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN HG OR COLDPLAY'S VIOLET HILL.  Odd couple GalexAnnie


Snow floated lazily down from the grey, bored skies. I was cleaning up the remains of District 2- a mediocre job that everyone else deemed pleasant and a privilege. I showed up on TV occasionally, but just to comment on the progress and occasionally to interview with some of the people. My thoughts drew back to Annie who was waiting for me at the bottom of the hill.

_Was a long and dark December_

_From the rooftops I remember_

_There was snow_

_White snow_

I smiled at her greatly from where I was, but she seemed to be looking far, far away like she often did when something perturbed her… like the nonexistent Capitol and her experiences therein. She was dressed poorly for the weather and I secretly wondered where little Finn, Finnick and Annie's child, was. This caused me to shuffle quicker towards her. The little windows on the sides of the buildings showed little silhouettes of warm people ever present in luxury, never having to work a day in their lives, and there I was. One of the greatest officials and having to work my fingers to the bone- even more so than in the mines in 12.

_Clearly I remember_

_From the windows they were watching_

_While we froze down below_

"Annie…" I looked into her vacant eyes and finally saw her come back to me with a smile.

"Gale…" I swallowed hard as she said my name and rubbed the stubble on my chin trying to regain control over my emotions for the younger woman.

"Where's little Finn?" I steadied my voice. I'd never needed to with any other girl besides her because it was simple. She was different.

"Oh, he's at home…" She looked at something over my shoulder with that far off look.

"Annie…" I urged her on and she looked mildly startled.

"Oh yeah. I came over to thank you for the game. It's much better than all that market food. Can't stand the stuff. I'm used to whatever Finnick brought me…" Her eyes were teary and I approached quietly and gently wrapped my arms around her, like she would shatter if I squeezed too hard. My heart needed me to be that gentle for fear that I would break.

In the back of my mind, I knew they would never let me have her.

_When the future's architectured_

_By a carnival of idiots on show_

_You'd better lie low_

She would never have the capability to know how I felt about her. I shouldn't have felt anything, but I couldn't help myself when all I had in this world was a broken woman with a happy little boy who wasn't mine. I loved her. Plain and simple, but I didn't know if she was capable of loving me back.

"Annie," I cooed to her and she looked up at me in a mild stupor.

"I'm sorry, Gale." She turned around and walked away leaving me confused and following her footprints to a hill on the outskirts of town, mulling over how I could take care of her.

_If you love me_

_Won't you let me know?_

She finally stopped under a scraggly, snow-burdened tree. Her darker hair contrasted against her pale skin and her dark eyes stared into the unknown. "They took him away from me, Gale…"

My only thought was that she had accidentally hurt little Finn and the officials took him away. "Where is Finn, Annie?"

"With Finnick…" She buried her head in her hands.

She was making no sense now. "Annie, Finnick is gone."

"He drowned, Gale. He drowned! He's gone! He's gone…" The irony of a fisherman's son drowning…

She kept blubbering on and on and when I would reach out to touch her she would pull away only falling to pieces and further in hysterics. She pushed herself against the tired little tree and her white linen dress tore against the bark of the scraggly tree. Confusion welled up in me and nearly turned to rage, but seeing the little broken woman before me doused any flame I held.

She finally calmed enough for me to wrap my arms around her and coo to her quietly. She could never know that I'd just been evicted from my flat despite my status. They all just wanted money and always would. That's all the government was good for anyways. Taking things. The blur of government activity was all the people worshipped these days and now, they'd taken the last bit of her sanity.

_Was a long and dark December_

_When the banks became cathedrals_

_And the fog became God_

From what I could gather, someone came in while Annie was "out doing something" and drowned little Finn. He'd been gone for days and she just came around to it today. The fact of the matter was that it'd been days since she'd remembered anything. I figured that he had accidentally drowned himself by trying to hold his breath too long again. I'd already had to give him CPR once already and she was out like a light, in the confines of her mind, waking up to find her son dead.

Her tear streaked face told me all I needed to know. She needed help.

"Annie… Shh…"

Her sobs quieted to the point where she could speak. "Help me, Gale…"

She was too fragile and I was faced with a great decision. I could either take Annie to get help, lock her up, or make conditions for her to be monitored 24/7 by me, but the only way I could do that was by marriage. I looked at the grief stricken girl in my arms and knew she wasn't lying about her situation. Little Finn was gone and she had nothing left from her former lover save for a necklace and locket encrusted with pearls. My thoughts flickered back to my last plan and I groaned inwardly. There was nothing sanctified about marriage. Not here in District 2.

_Priests clutched onto bibles_

_Hollowed out to fit their rifles_

_And the cross was held aloft_

Conflict raptured me as I glanced down at the ocean green eyes searching my grey ones, looking for something- hope maybe. "Let's go home, Annie…"

"Your home?" Her voice seemed hopeful, but I shook my head. "Why not?"

"They… evicted me."

Her brilliant eyes flashed with a powerful fire of the girl I'd seen tapes of in the Hunger Games. She pushed away and nearly blended into the snow with her white dress and pale skin. "How can they do something like that? You're one of the ones who saved them and they treat you like that? Simply incredible." She wrapped her arms around herself in an effort to console herself. I suppressed my urge to smile at her outburst.

Her reaction reminded me entirely too much of Katniss and I shook my head to rid myself of the ghost. "I'll die with honor one day, Annie."

"Yeah and I'll die with my sanity." She tapped the side of her head and rolled her eyes. It was the moments like these that made me have hope for the fragile District 4 girl.

_Bury me in honor_

_When I'm dead and hit the ground_

_A love back home unfolds_

Annie took me back to her apartment, a lovely flat that was twelve times better than my ratty little place and I felt it oddly empty. That's when I realized there was no life form in the house besides me and the girl from 4. "He used to be so happy here. He loved to sit outside on the balcony and watch the people go by… They weren't as garish as those in the Capitol, but they looked odd compared to us. He had a good head on his shoulders."

"You have a good head on your shoulders, Annie." I knew she wasn't listening but was in some nostalgic prison and would revert to a childlike mental state for who knows how long afterwards.

She rambled on for quite some time before she peered into my soul with a piercing stare. "Finnick used to take good care of me. Will you?"

"The question is, Annie," I loved saying her name so much. It just rolled off the tongue. Annie. "The question is will you let me take care of you?"

_If you love me_

_Won't you let me know?_

There was so much I could ask her but I saw the vacancy creeping into her eyes as her inner child took over to rocking her on her heels and throwing her over onto a couch to rock and shake and see things in her mind. I didn't know if I could live with someone who was only a child themself. She would run my life, then go into a stupor.

_I don't want to be a soldier_

_Who the captain of some sinking ship_

_Would stow, far below_

My heart moved to her and wanted to guide her, but I knew the authorities would be coming soon, even with Paylor as their President. They'd say that Annie killed her son in a fit of insanity, which, with her, was a possibility. She would never allow me to marry her, but she couldn't dare go to the Capitol to be imprisoned even though the conditions of imprisonment were twelve times better, in my opinion.

"You can't stay here, Gale. They'll take you, too."

"I'm not leaving you."

"I don't love you, Gale." Her words, curt and vapid, cut through me like a hot knife through butter. She knew my weak spot when I didn't know it myself, but I saw the tears in her eyes that told me she was lying.

"I do love you."

"I don't-" She fell into a bout of weeping and rocking again, knowing her lies couldn't hold water against me. "Get out. Get out…"

_So if you love me_

_Why'd you let me go?_

I walked out the door to face two of the Capitol men looking for Annie Cresta Odair to which I replied, "She's making wedding plans."

To which they responded, "For whom?"

"Me and herself."

The laughed and punched each other around talking about how they were going to have to take her if someone wasn't caring for her.

"Well, you won't have to worry about that anymore." I swallowed hard knowing that the Capitol would be checking in on everything and Paylor would want to be invited to the wedding as soon as she caught word, which would be tonight. Not two steps from Annie's apartment door, I turned around and walked back in the room, finding a semiconscious District 4 girl laying on the floor muttering in a restless sleep.

I picked her up and nearly threw her through the ceiling, just wondering when the last time she ate was. She could hardly have weighed more than 80 pounds. I shook my head and carried her to one of the two bedrooms in her apartment, then made myself at home by eating some of the game I'd provided her. Her fridge was nearly full of game and fish, stockpiled like she would run out at any time.

I tore into some jerky just wondering how to break the news to her of what just happened; then, I decided I couldn't. I would just have to ask her to marry me and hope for the best. If things went the way I expected them to, I would tell her then, but I couldn't run the risk right now. She'd been reported and surely Paylor would have her under close surveillance unless I was around. If she did one thing out of line, that would be the end of Annie Cresta Odair.

Sleep fell over me faster than I could anticipate and I was out like a light. What seemed like a few seconds later, I felt something tugging on my sleeve tentatively like a frightened little child. My heavy eyes lifted a few centimeters when I saw a clean, kempt Annie crawling onto the couch next to me and laying her head on my lap. Her green eyes glinted in the darkness then they closed, not opening again.

"I'm sorry, Annie," I whispered.

Sleep pulled me under again, forcing me to live out all my nightmares. Blood, mutants and mutts, District 12, Peeta Mellark, Katniss Everdeen, Annie, Finnick… They all plagued me as I tried to sleep. I woke up in a slightly muddled state to find Annie still sleeping soundly on the other side of the couch, curled into a little ball and snoring softly. I chuckled quietly and looked over at the clock. It was my day off and I needed a ring. One with sapphires and diamonds.

After quietly leaving Annie a note for when she woke up, I scoured every ring shop I could find and visited an old fur underwear shop to see a friend, who, in return for my visit, bought the ring I wanted for me.

"Thank you so much. I owe you twice."

"You got rid of Snow and you're marrying Annie Cresta. You've already paid me back." The elderly lady growled in her purr-like fashion and I smiled, leaving her with a smile also.

Snow had begun to fall down, dusting the streets and the roofs with another layer of thick white blanket. One of the guards ran up to me with a smile. He couldn't have been seventeen.

"Sir Hawthorne," he addressed and I nodded. "President Paylor asked when the wedding would be and sent me to get all of the arrangements. She said that it was about time, also."

"Tell her to show up at District 2 church tomorrow at four in the afternoon." He nodded and ran off again. Well, I had just sealed mine and Annie's fate.

I trudged around in the snow for a while before returning to the apartment complex where I now resided. The ring was heavy in my pocket, clinking next to the few pieces of change that I had left to my name. Payday was coming around soon and I almost couldn't wait for the two hundred dollars I would be awarded after my marriage. Pay doubles when you get married.

When I decided I couldn't wait any longer and that Annie was probably up, I ambled down the hallways and corridors, avoiding glances from workers and other residents occasionally getting pointed at by a wayside child. I dodged the security cameras by dipping my head until I reached _her_ door and opened it gently. "Annie?"

"Why did you save me from those two men who came to get me?" The apartment was dark save for the light coming from the two windows that quickly vanished into the darkness of the room.

I paused a long time before answering. "Because…" I swallowed hard and entered, closing the door behind me. "Because I love you, Annie Cresta."

The lights clicked on and I saw her standing there behind the granite countertop in the kitchen. Her sea green eyes were sad and heavy. "Marry me, Annie."

"When will be the wedding?"

"Tomorrow."

"Well, I better go find a dress, now shouldn't I?" She shot me a weary smile and began walking towards me.

Her light blue dress made her look even more washed out than normal.

"Annie, wait. I have some money that I saved for-"

"I have more money than you do, Gale. I'm buying this wedding."

With that, she walked out and I didn't see her until four in the afternoon the next day. I borrowed Thom from 12 and shipped him over to be my best man. He helped me find a tux on short notice, also.

I stood there in the sterile white church with blue carpet leading the day up to the alter, which was decorated in genetically altered, blue roses. Blue and green dominated the places that wasn't completely stark white. Greys and browns shadowed the blue and green and I decided that Annie found her calling. Wedding planner.

Soft music stirred as she walked in. Her hair was pinned back from her face and curled in dozens of ringlets. Her white dress clasped her upper body, extenuating her curves, and her lower half was covered by a flowing, gauzy material. The rest of the ceremony and reception was a blur mixed with memories of thanking Paylor and seeing those I had once known. I just remembered Annie's sad eyes and her quiet, "I do."

She and I were always near one another, her avoiding my touch and contradicting her love. She walked out behind the last guests, discarding her shoes, and trudged through the falling snow with bare feet. All I could do was follow her through the cold and finally catch up with her and her flowing dress. There in the icy cold she stood looking out over the plains and at the sunset.

"Annie, are you cold?" I then thought my question was stupid. Of course she was.

I peeled off my jacket and wrapped it around her arms silently.

_I took my love down to violet hill_

_There we sat in snow_

_All that time she was silent still_

_So if you love me_

_Won't you let me know?_

"I love you, Annie."

She said nothing back. She probably never would. It never mattered. I loved her just the same, but I knew nothing would ever be perfect. I chose the path of a woman who couldn't love me back.

_If you love me,_

_Won't you let me know?_


End file.
